May Aces; Top Seed Santamarta Upset at Roland Garros Juniors, Americans Pareja and Willwerth Reach Quarterfinals; King and Townsend Advance to RG Mixed Final; Women's Collegiate Accelerator Program Recipients Named

My monthly column featuring the top performances from juniors and current and former collegians is up today at Tennis Recruiting Network. Seventeen players are highlighted, with juniors earning their first pro titles and former collegians collecting valuable points as they continue their pro careers.

Seven of the 17 juniors featured are competing at the Roland Garros Junior Championships this week, and all seven are still in contention for either singles or doubles titles with the quarterfinals in both draws scheduled for Thursday.

Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain, the top seed in both singles and doubles, has been eliminated, losing in the first round of doubles yesterday and falling in the third round of singles today to unseeded Niels Mcdonald of Germany 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. 

Santamarta, 18, and Mcdonald, 17, had never played before today and Mcdonald had lost in the first round at both the J300 in Santa Croce and the J500 in Milan, two warmup events for Roland Garros, so this was definitely unexpected. Santamarta has won three J500s on clay since December, but the biggest junior title on the surface has eluded him.

The two Americans advancing to the quarterfinals are No. 9 seed Julieta Pareja and No. 6 seed Benjamin Willwerth.  Pareja totally dominated her match with unseeded Victoria Barros of Brazil 6-2, 6-2 in just over an hour.  Pareja will face top seed Emerson Jones of Australia in Thursday's quarterfinals.

Willwerth defeated No. 10 seed Timofei Derepasko 6-4, 6-4, the same score that Willwerth had posted in his win over the Russian in the quarterfinals in Australia.  But today's match was a struggle for the Australian Open boys finalist, who was 4 of 15 on break points in the match.

Serving for it at 6-4, 5-3, Willwerth went up 40-0, but couldn't close, with his errors and Derepasko's good shots leading to a 10-deuce game that saw Willwerth fail to convert four more match points, and Derepasko finally broke with a forehand winner. 

Derepasko had a game point to pull even at 5-all, but couldn't convert it, and Willwerth finally ended the one-hour 40-minute matches with a forehand approach and volley winner on his eighth match point.

Willwerth will face unseeded Max Schoenhaus of Germany, who ended the run of qualifier Stefan Haita of Romnia 2-6, 6-1, 6-1. 

No. 4 seed Jack Kennedy was 3-0 against No. 13 seed Ryo Tabata of Japan, with the last win by a 6-0, 6-0 score in the third round of J500 in Brazil in March, but Kennedy wasn't sharp today, making 41 unforced errors in a 6-4, 7-6(4) loss. Tabata had trouble closing out the match, with Kennedy breaking him at 5-4 and 6-5, but Tabata got the first mini-break of tiebreaker on a Kennedy unforced forehand error and he closed it out by holding his final two points on serve.

No. 5 seed Jagger Leach lost to No. 9 seed Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria, with the 16-year-old Ivanov making a few less unforced errors in a match that was decided by very small margins.

While there are just two Americans left in singles, nine remain in doubles. Results from today's second round doubles matches featuring Americans are below, along with Thursday's matches. 

Oskari Paldanius(FIN) and Alan Wazny(POL)[2] d. Ronit Karki and Jack Satterfield 4-6, 6-4, 10-5

Jagger Leach and Oliver Bonding[8](GBR) d. Thilo Behrmann(AUT) and Nikita Bilozertsev(UKR) 4-6, 6-3, 10-6

Maxwell Exsted and Alexander Vasilev(BUL) d. Jack Secord and Yannik Alvarez(PUR) 6-1, 6-4

Julieta Pareja and Luna Cinalli[5](ARG) d. Capucine Jauffret and Laima Vladson(LTU) 0-6, 7-5, 10-7

Benjamin Willwerth and Noah Johnston[7] v Linus Lagerbohm(FIN) and William Rejchtman(SWE)

Jagger Leach and Oliver Bonding(GBR)[8] v Yannick Alexandrescou(ROU) and Ryo Tabata(JPN)[4]

Jack Kennedy and Keaton Hance[3] v Maxwell Exsted and Alexander Vasilev(BUL)

Julieta Pareja and Luna Cinalli(ARG)[5] v Mia Pohankova(SVK) and Lilli Tagger(AUT)

Annika and Kristina Penickova[2] v Charo Esquiva Banuls(ESP) and Nellie Taraba Wallberg(SWE)[7]

Coco Gauff[2] defeated Madison Keys[7] 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-1 in today's women's quarterfinals at Roland Garros, winning the matchup of the two most recent American slam champions. Gauff will play the surprise of all surprises, French wild card Lois Boisson, in the semifinals, after Boisson continued her unprecedented run with a 7-6(6), 6-3 win over No. 6 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia. Three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek[5] of Poland will face top seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the other women's semifinal Thursday.

There are no Americans left in the women's doubles, but former University of Michigan All-American Evan King will play for the mixed title on Thursday and for a spot in the men's final on Friday.  King and Taylor Townsend, the No. 4 seeds, saved three match points in the deciding tiebreaker to beat unseeded Desirae Krawczyk(Arizona State) and Great Britain's Neal Skupski(LSU) 3-6, 7-6(2), 12-10. King and Townsend will play No. 3 seeds Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori of Italy for the title.  Errani and Vavassori won the US Open mixed title in 2024, beating Townsend and Donald Young in the final.

No. 9 seeds King and Christian Harrison, who teamed up just this year and are up to 18 and 21 in the ATP doubles rankings after winning two ATP 500 titles earlier this year, will face No. 8 seeds Joe Salisbury(Memphis) and Skupski of Great Britain in the semifinals. Harrison and King defeated No. 2 seeds and Wimbledon and Australian Open champions Harri Heliovaara of Finland and Henry Patten(UNC-Asheville) of Great Britain 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

The ITA announced the women's Division I college players who have access to the Accelerator Program offered by the ITF, which is dramatically less generous than what the ATP has set up for the men. With only five women getting in, compared to 22 men this year, the disparity is jarring, and I've been mystified at how this inequity could continue for what has been years now. As I addressed at length in my Intriguing Questions post for Tennis Recruiting Network in January, there's no excuse for this, and the blame lies squarely at the feet of the ITF.

Here is the ITA article revealing the five women who will have access to many fewer professional opportunities than the men receive.